Prognosis Is Improving For Hospital Food

Competition Has Persuaded The Health-care Industry To Make Mealtime As Attractive As Nutritionally Possible.

May 20, 1993|By Charlotte Balcomb Lane of The Sentinel Staff

As peanuts on airplanes and mystery meat in school cafeterias are ingrained in American culture, so is the notion that all hospital food is bad.

But these days, the food served in hospitals is more like what you'd expect in a restaurant or hotel, say Central Florida's health care administrators. It's earning high praise for healthfulness, taste, variety and freshness. The service is friendly and personalized and the menus offer plenty of choice. Even patients on restricted diets can order a changing assortment of foods.

Why this sudden cure for the most institutional of cuisines? The answer can be summed up in a word: Money. With the rising cost of health care, hospitals have become more competitive and are no longer willing to subsidize the cost of food service. Food-service operations have had to upgrade the quality and service in order to woo patients and build community loyalty.

Hospital cafeterias are also trying to compete with free-standing restaurants for the dollars of the health-care professionals and visitors who might otherwise leave the hospital during lunch or dinner. So cafeterias are tempting doctors, nurses, aides, orderlies and visitors by offering the type of food they would ordinarily order in fast-food joints, delicatessens and diners.

Most hospital cafeterias offer meal time amenities such as 40-item salad bars, make-your-own sandwich or baked potato bars, hamburgers and steaks that are pink and juicy in the middle, muffins that are freshly baked, and a changing buffet of interesting ethnic foods. Bed-ridden patients who are not on medically restricted diets can select three-course meals from printed menus that include both hot and cold entrees, large salads and desserts.

Recently, the cafeteria at Florida Hospital South in Orlando featured an ''Indian bar'' with samosas, curried vegetables over basmati rice, a cool and refreshing lime-and-cilantro chutney and wafer-thin, crispy pappadams. For those who haven't eaten in an Indian restaurant, samosas are appetizer turnovers filled with a spiced blend of peas and cooked potatoes; basmati rice is a fragrant type of long-grain Indian rice; and pappadams are crackerlike breads made of lentil flour.

People with less exotic tastes could also satisfy their appetites with a salad bar; an Italian pasta bar; an Asian stir-fried wok entree; three kinds of soup; grilled sandwiches; deep-fried veggies; a low-fat, low-sodium ''health'' entree; breads; cakes; or frozen yogurt. The cafeteria routinely serves about 3,000 people a day, most of whom eat during lunchtime, said Ed Noseworthy, director of nutritional services.

Florida Hospital is operated by the Seventh-day Adventist Church, which advocates a vegetarian lifestyle, so all the entrees served in the cafeteria are meatless. However, patients can order meat, chicken or fish entrees. On the same day that staff and visitors were chowing down on samosas in the cafeteria, many patients in the hospital were eating grilled chicken with rice and green beans, carrot cake and rolls.

Food at Florida Hospital is planned and prepared in-house by staff cooks, dietitians and managers. But across town at the new Health Central facility in Ocoee, the food-service operation is managed by Morrison's Hospitality Group, the same company that runs Morrison's Cafeterias. In addition to offering many of Morrison's entrees, desserts and breads, the Health Central cafeteria also offers a changing assortment of low-fat, low-sodium entrees, salads, steaks and grilled sandwiches. Drab servers' uniforms and unstylish hairnets have been replaced with white shirts, bow ties, red suspenders and jaunty red caps.

Dan Fallucca, the director of food service for the 141-bed hospital, said the uniforms help ''Morrisonize'' the dining experience for patients, staff and visitors.

The experiment seems to be working. The cafeteria is a popular dining destination among area residents who flock to the hospital just for meals. Some, like Ed and Louise Space, both over 70, lunch regularly at the hospital. They like the food, which they can purchase with a special senior-citizens discount. And they enjoy the pleasant ambience. The dining room is situated at the bottom of a six-story atrium planted with ferns and palms. The splash of an upstairs fountain echoes melodiously through the room.

''It's a gorgeous setting,'' said Louise Space, an Ocoee native, who was dining on a Southern meal of roast pork, dressing and greens. Her husband, a New Hampshire native dined on a Yankee meal of chicken and vegetables in white wine sauce and lemon meringue pie. Each meal cost the couple $5.06.

Even those who don't come to the hospital voluntarily give the food good reviews. Edgar Behr, 67, who was recovering from a ruptured appendix, reported recently that the food and service were both excellent, especially after he was able to eat normal meals again. For most of his hospital stay, he was on a liquid diet.